Meet Muttley

A big day today. We first visited a hermitage once occupied by Pietro da Morrone, who later became pope. In what seems to be becoming a theme, the person with the keys wasn't there, so we ended up hanging around for nearly an hour, time occupied by Lorenzo giving us a talk about Pietro, and Franco introducing us to his Haflinger ponies. We were allocated one between two, and this is Muttley.

After an express tour of the hermitage, we eventually set off with the ponies over an hour behind schedule. An easy start was followed by wading through a chilly mountain stream (extra) and then a very hard climb up a steep wooded slope that seemed endless. We took turns leading the ponies -- more tiring than walking on your own as a) no spare hands for sticks and b) you have to move at their pace, i.e faster than you would like. The ponies' one aim in life was to grab as much as they could of the fresh green beech leaves overhanging the path. I actually became quite grateful for this as it gave opportunities for pauses.

It was exhausting. We had a short rest at the top, and then proceeded on the flat. One thing I have already learned is that when you see Lorenzo put on his waterproofs, you should do so too, because it's going to rain in five minutes. It started to drizzle steadily, and we were very grateful when we staggered up to the campsite to find that Andrew had just finished putting up the tents. We just had time to dive into them as the massive downpour started.

An hour later we were still zipped into the tents listening to the rain drumming down. But then we.heard Andrew shout something that sounded like "shelter ... campfire ... wine". So when there was a slight lull we dashed out wearing all the clothes we had to find that Franco had stretched a large tarpaulin between some trees and was tending a campfire. There were even a table and benches, and once we had glasses of wine our tempers improved considerably. The rain even slackened for five minutes at sunset, just enough for a single blink of sunshine to break through (extra).

The food that Franco and his wife Claudia prepared on the fire was wonderful: bruschetta, grilled mozzarella-like cheese, salad, lamb cutlets, pancetta, mozzarella and burrata, and watermelon and limoncello to finish. We were soon in very good humour and some singing may have occurred before we retreated to our tents in the rain.